


Hearing Disabilities

by iloveitblue



Series: Prompts [35]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Clint is Deaf, M/M, but you knew that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-04 03:30:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1764155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iloveitblue/pseuds/iloveitblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where we focus on Clint's hearing disability</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hearing Disabilities

Let’s face it, Clint was the only  _squishy_  person on the team. Tony had his suit, Natasha was Natasha (If you knew her, you’d know what Clint meant), Bruce had the Hulk, Steve had the serum, and Thor, well, Thor was a god. 

To make matters worse, Clint was the only Avenger with a disability (Don’t even start with the Stark has a heart problem thing, because we all know that Tony only uses that when he wants to get out of something) So yeah, he was  _squishy_.

Which makes Fury’s reprimanding a little more irritating than it needs to be.

"You were under strict orders to stay in your quarters, Agent Barton! You did not have clearance to proceed to the labs, even if it was on fire. There are senior agents  _with proper clearance_  who were instructed to deal with the fire.”

There was a goddamn fire. He couldn’t just stand there and watch just because he didn’t have clearance. Lives were at stake. Clint bet Natasha wouldn’t get an earful if she did what Clint had done.

"Disregarding a direct order from your superior and nonobservance of the clearance parameters! This is the last-"

Fury gawped when he saw Clint take out his hearing aid and yeah, maybe there was a good side to this hearing impaired thing. Especially when it made his favorite handler smirk like that.

—-

PR events were always a thing now that the Avengers were known. At schools, Natasha was the center of attention for the girls. The boys were divided between Captain America and Iron Man. Thor would be at the playground playing Hide and Seek with his new Midgardian friends. Clint and Bruce often sat on the stage, talking between themselves. Bruce rose to the top of the popularity chart when the kids found out that the unassuming man was the Hulk, but was just as quickly dismissed when they found that Bruce wouldn’t be transforming any time soon.

As for Clint, well, he wasn’t really seen in any of the battles since he was mostly on rooftops instead of the ground.

So basically, their PR trips would be starring Cap, Stark, Nat, with Thor for entertainment and two guys and a man in a suit. But this time, it was different. 

Clint was sitting with Bruce and they were talking about some thing or the other when a kid approached them. The kid shyly asked Dr. Banner for his autograph and if he could sit and talk to him about science in general. Bruce smiled at the child and they sat together talking about chemistry and biology and other science-y stuff a 12 year old was allowed to know about. 

Clint took it as his cue to leave and did so. He was about to go to Coulson for company when he noticed a child sitting on the bleachers and away from the other kids. He made his way to the kid, and greeted. 

"Hey, kid, having fun?" He asked. 

The child looked up and then back down.

"Are you okay?" He tried again as he sat down next to the kid.

The child didn’t say anything. 

"Don’t you want to go say hi to Captain America or Iron Man? I could take you to them if you wanted." Clint continued. "Hello?"

The child sighed. then he took out a Starkpad out of his bag and went to the notes app.

_I can hear you. I just can’t speak._

"Oh." 

_Yeah._

Clint tapped his shoulder and the child looked at him. Then Clint began speaking to him in sign language.

 _Do you mind if I ask what happened?_  Clint asked.

The child looked at him with such surprise, before he grinned up at Clint then his expression turned sad again.

_I was in an accident a few months ago. I didn’t get badly injured but my Larynx was damaged beyond repair. So…_

_Wow. That must suck. At least you learned how to use sign language, so you got that going for you._

_I guess. Wait. Why does Hawkeye know sign language?_

Clint was surprised that the kid knew who he was, but with the Avengers getting the attention that they were, maybe he shouldn’t. 

 _I’m actually a little deaf._ Clint took out his hearing aid and showed it to the kid.  _See?_  before putting it back on. 

_And you’re still an Avenger?_

_Yep. It doesn’t matter what disability you have. What matters is that you don’t let it get you down. Everyone has their own burdens. Living with yours makes you stronger than anyone else._

The child smiled up at Clint then bit his lip. He took out a pen and a notebook and asked.  _Do you mind if I asked for your autograph?_

 _Not at all._  Clint answered with a grin before he took the notebook and signed it.

"Pretty words, Barton. Who taught you poetry?" Coulson asked through his comm. 

Clint took out his phone and pressed it against his ear to look like he was talking to someone. “No one, sir. I moonlight as a poet. Didn’t know you knew sign language though.”

"There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, Clint. But it just so happens that my boyfriend, wow that sounds so juvenile, knows sign language. I thought the need to know it would come in handy. And lo, I was right."

"You’re almost never wrong, sir." Clint scoffed. He put his phone back in his pocket and turned to the waiting child. The rest of the event, they talked to each other.

Yeah, there were some setbacks in being hearing impaired, but when you get to bond with awesome people, you find that you hardly care.

**Author's Note:**

> [Can be found here on tumblr](http://promptmephlint.tumblr.com/post/88283486101/i-cleaned-my-room-yesterday-and-i-was-astounded)


End file.
